Last updated on June 24th, 2010 at 04:02 pm
President Obama’s Meeting with General McChrystal – BREAKING
McChrystal arrived at White House ready to tender his resignation Wednesday at 10:00 AM. At 1:15 PM, MSNBC announced that President Obama relieved General McChrystal of his Afghanistan post as commander. MSNBC is reporting that General Petraeus has been chosen to replace General McChrystal as commander of the Afghanistan forces.
obama_mcchrystal_whitehouse.gov
After his disastrous profile in Rolling Stone, General Stanely McChrystal was summoned to the White House to meet with his unhappy boss, President Obama. The normally calm and even-tempered President displayed rare signs of edginess yesterday when speaking about the General’s contemptuous remarks in Rolling Stone.
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“Obama said McChrystal had shown “poor judgment” in criticizing Obama and the administration’s handling of the war in Afghanistan in an interview to be published later this week in Rolling Stone magazine…(The President further added that) “So whatever decision that I make with respect to General McChrystal or any other aspect of Afghan policy is determined entirely on how I can make sure that we have a strategy that justifies the enormous courage and sacrifice of those men and women over there.””
Yes, even when angry, the President is careful in his choice of words so as not to inflame an already disturbing situation.
General McChrystal met with President Obama at 10:00 Wednesday morning for a meeting, after which the President met in the Situation Room with his National Security Team to determine the fate of McChrystal and the implication of that decision on the Afghanistan strategy.
Both Democrats and Republicans have expressed grave concern over the General’s undisciplined outbursts. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said, “I’m concerned that if General McChrystal has to resign, and he may, what happens to the leadership in the middle of a very crucial time in Afghanistan, but, I respect the President’s decision as Commander in Chief on this situation.”
What isn’t clear is whether or not putting the President in this lose-lose scenario was a continuation of what appeared to be a deliberate tactic to force Obama to agree to his war strategy, or whether the General endangered the national security of this country by showing the enemy our lack of unity simply because he is suffering from some sort of long-term battle trauma resulting from a war that is quite simply not going well.
Either way, the General’s outburst gave birth to a surge of questions regarding his Afghanistan strategy.
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